Principal Investigator(s):
James R. Millar, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign;
Barbara A. Anderson, University of Michigan;
Donna Bahry, New York University;
John Garrard, University of Arizona;
Paul R. Gregory, University of Houston;
Rasma Karklins, University of Illinois-Chicago;
Norman Nie, University of Chicago;
Brian D. Silver, Michigan State University;
Michael Swafford, Vanderbilt University;
Aaron Vinokur, University of Haifa (Israel);
William Zimmerman, University of Michigan

Summary

This survey was undertaken to study everyday life in the
Soviet Union by conducting highly-structured interviews with a
probability sample of eligible Soviet emigrants in the United States.
An interdisciplinary research team constructed a questionnaire with the
expectation that the results would contribute not only to Sovietology,
but to general theories in a number of academic disciplines, especially
political science, economics, and sociology. Respondents were asked to
comment on topics such as: crime, culture and the arts, education,
ethnicity (or nationality), family life, fertility, friends, health and
diet, housing, income and earnings, language practices, mass media,
military experience, political and social opinions, politics,
participation in organizations, religion, satisfaction, standard of
living, and work. To insure that "normal" life experiences would be
described, respondents were asked to define and discuss their last
normal period in the USSR. Since applying to emigrate usually brings
marked changes in Soviet citizens' lives, respondents reported the
month and year in which they applied to emigrate, whether plans to
emigrate had significantly changed their lives even before that date,
and if so, specified the month and year in which their lives changed.
Interviewers then made certain that all descriptions of day-to-day life
in the Soviet Union referred to the period before the question of
emigration became a significant issue for respondents.

Geographic Coverage

Time Period(s)

1979 -- 1985

Date of Collection

1983 -- 1987

Data Collection Notes

For reasons of confidentiality, many variables (such as
detailed occupation) have been collapsed and others have been omitted
from the datafile and codebook. The hardcopy codebook materials include
some information written in Russian. Additional documentary materials
available upon request include coding manual, questionnaires, and
general specifications.

Sample

Probability sample stratified on four background variables:
nationality, region of last employment in the USSR, highest level of
education attained, and size of city in which last employed.
Individuals included in the sample were between the ages of 21 and 70
inclusive at the time of arrival in the United States.

Universe

The universe is the fairly complete list of 35,386
emigrants who arrived in the United States between January 1, 1979 and
December 31, 1985. However, the focus of the study is the "referent
Soviet population" (the sector of Soviet society the survey
respondents could represent). The referent Soviet population is the
"adult European population in large and medium-sized Soviet cities."